Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC Purchases 1,418 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC increased its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 91,468 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,418 shares during the quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC’s holdings in TELUS were worth $1,627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,789,027 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $356,033,000 after buying an additional 387,561 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its holdings in TELUS by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 21,630,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $353,226,000 after acquiring an additional 533,306 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in TELUS by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 21,540,649 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $352,841,000 after acquiring an additional 368,650 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. increased its holdings in TELUS by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 16,675,010 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $272,179,000 after acquiring an additional 1,542,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in TELUS by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 15,971,196 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $260,969,000 after acquiring an additional 1,126,322 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TU has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of TELUS from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $26.00 price target (down from $28.00) on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, March 25th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.72.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $16.37 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.06, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $15.35 and a 12 month high of $21.19. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $16.48 and its 200 day moving average is $17.24.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.24 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.18% and a return on equity of 7.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. Research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.76 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were given a $0.2793 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.83%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 258.14%.

About TELUS

TELUS Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of telecommunications and information technology products and services in Canada. It operates through Technology Solutions and Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segments. The Technology Solutions segment offers a range of telecommunications products and services; network services; healthcare services; mobile technologies equipment; data services, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain and consumer goods technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services, as well as mobile and fixed voice and data telecommunications services and products.